daikon radish

Makes me smile. Big radishes...big deer. Win win

Mark, I drilled radishes, wheat and red clover into a sunn hemp, cow pea, soy bean, sunflower, buck wheat field terminated with a roller crimper. I rotate back and forth summer multi specie plantings with fall multi specie plantings all no till. I stopped using synthetic fertilizer years ago. Only occasionally use gly as a last resort but essentially organic.

In the beginning I had lousy soil that I tilled , used synthetic fertilizer and sprayed. Kept getting lousier. I changed approach about 4 years ago and have been delighted with results . Deer are doing pretty good too. Everything in the mixes I use they like.
That must be a good sized plot to get that stuff to grow ahead of the crimper huh? Any pics of it pre-roll?
 
Baker....beyond impressive. I mean good golly.

As I get a little older and in particular a little more experienced with habitat managment, my default is to become more critical of my self.....but I digress.

If I put my self in your shoes, I would instantly look through a critical lens and say "well why aren't the deer eating this...something must be wrong". In particular I'm referring to the crimping of soybeans and cow peas...but again I digress.

I can barely keep a simple fall mix of grains and clover to be more than bare dirt. My exclusion cages tell me it's because of the deer. I have harvested 11 the past 2 years on 171 acres. 14 over the past three years. (This does not include my neighbors ) My efforts to provide food, cover, water and fawning habitat have given me excellent returns.....but once again.......

My point is you are good, really good. But do you ever get the feeling we are in pursuit of an inevitable paradox? If my plots look great then I must have a herd problem because they should be browsed more. But if they look terrible, I should harvest more whitetail.
 
Thanks David, I appreciate your comments.

Funny how the 'lens' changes with time. Like many I started many years ago trying food plots hoping to get a buck to come to it. That is far in the rearview mirror of motivations now. Today the outcomes sought are far broader. I almost get as excited with improving worm counts as deer sightings. So the paradox evaporites as the paradigm shifts.

I grow far more food than the deer can eat. The inspiration is to create the healthiest herd possible while at the same time improving the soil and leaving the farm as biologically vigorous as possible for my children to do whatever they want with it. I am blessed with scale and opportunity to experiment and explore building a strong ecosystem without having to make a living at it. Kind of a giggle that growing bacteria and fungi is mutually compatible with growing outstanding whitetails
 
Thanks David, I appreciate your comments.

Funny how the 'lens' changes with time. Like many I started many years ago trying food plots hoping to get a buck to come to it. That is far in the rearview mirror of motivations now. Today the outcomes sought are far broader. I almost get as excited with improving worm counts as deer sightings. So the paradox evaporites as the paradigm shifts.

I grow far more food than the deer can eat. The inspiration is to create the healthiest herd possible while at the same time improving the soil and leaving the farm as biologically vigorous as possible for my children to do whatever they want with it. I am blessed with scale and opportunity to experiment and explore building a strong ecosystem without having to make a living at it. Kind of a giggle that growing bacteria and fungi is mutually compatible with growing outstanding whitetails
It's all part of the food web man.
 
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